Top 10 Kickass Literary Females

**Top 10 Favorite Kickass Literary Female Characters: A Tribute to Badass Women in Literature**

In today’s video, I wanted to talk about something truly close to my heart—my top 10 favorite kickass literary female characters. This was an incredibly difficult list to narrow down because, luckily for us, there are so many fantastic, diverse, and inspiring women in literature. The roles of women in stories have evolved over the years, and now we have a full flush of amazing characters that come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities. Today, I want to celebrate these incredible women and share some of my favorite characters who have left a lasting impression on me.

### 1. **Lena from *Between Shades of Gray***

First up is Lena from *Between Shades of Gray*. Now, Lena doesn’t have any superpowers or combat skills, but what makes her truly badass is her unwavering strength and perseverance in the face of unimaginable adversity. Her story is one of the most devastating I’ve ever read, yet she manages to hold onto hope and continue moving forward despite everything thrown her way. Lena’s ability to inspire others with her resilience makes her an incredible role model and a character that truly sticks out.

### 2. **Selena Sidan from *Throne of Glass***

Next is Selena Sivan from the *Throne of Glass* series by Sarah J. Maas. I could easily make a list of badass women without including her, but she’s just too iconic to leave out. What I love about Selena is that she embodies a perfect blend of femininity and strength. She’s girly yet also a fighter, showing that these traits don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Her sassy and fun personality makes her relatable, and her willingness to embrace both sides of herself is something I deeply admire.

### 3. **Phra from *Court of F rougs***

Another standout character from Sarah J. Maas’ work is Phra from the *Court of M & Fury* series. Unlike Selena, Phra is more levelheaded and reserved. She starts off as someone who craves protection but eventually grows into a strong, independent woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it. Her journey of self-discovery and her ability to stand on her own two feet make her one of my favorite characters in this series.

### 4. **Kelsey from *Queen of the Tearling***

Moving on, we have Kelsey from *Queen of the Tearling*. What I love about Kelsey is that she’s not your typical YA heroine. She doesn’t fit into the mold of being “perfect” or overly concerned with her appearance. Instead, she’s confident in her intelligence and strength, which makes her incredibly relatable. Her journey as a ruler is fascinating to watch, as she learns how to lead and make tough decisions while staying true to herself.

### 5. **Vin from *The Final Empire***

Next up is Vin from *The Final Empire* by Brandon Sanderson. Vin is the kind of character who operates in quiet strength rather than loud bravado. She’s reserved, reliable, and has a heart of gold. What makes her so badass is that she doesn’t seek the spotlight, yet her actions speak volumes about her power and capability. Her quiet determination and loyalty to her friends make her one of the most inspiring characters on this list.

### 6. **Caris from *The Black Prism***

Another recent series I’ve fallen in love with is *The Black Prism* by Joe Abercrombie, and my favorite character from it is Caris. While she’s not a main character, Caris has a way of stealing the show every time she appears. She’s a through-and-through badass—strong, professional, and unafraid to speak her mind. Her no-nonsense attitude and willingness to stand up for what she believes in make her one of my favorite side characters.

### 7. **The Girls from *Truthwitch***

When it comes to female friendships, I couldn’t pass up the chance to include the two main characters from *Truthwitch* by Susan Dennard: Rhia and Lila. These two women are total opposites—one is outgoing and bold, while the other is quiet and thoughtful—but they complement each other perfectly. Their friendship is a testament to how female bonds can bring out the best in one another, making them stronger together. It’s a fantastic example of how badass female friendships can be.

### 8. **Tessa from *The Infernal Devices***

Next up is Tessa from *The Infernal Devices* by Cassandra Clare. Tessa isn’t exactly a fighter; instead, she relies on her wit and strategy to get her through tough situations. Her quiet nature and thoughtful demeanor make her stand out in a world full of loud and bold characters. What I love most about Tessa is her kindness and her big heart—she’s someone who truly cares for those around her, which makes her an incredibly inspiring character.

### 9. **Hermione Granger from *Harry Potter***

Of course, no list of kickass literary women would be complete without mentioning Hermione Granger from the *Harry Potter* series. Hermione has been my fictional role model since I was a child. She’s smart, resourceful, and always has the answers when everyone else is lost. Her dedication to learning and her willingness to stand up for what’s right make her an icon of badassery in literature.

### 10. **Kerol from *The Winner’s Curse***

Finally, we have Kerol from *The Winner’s Curse* by Marie Lu. Kerol is a character who defies traditional notions of strength and badassery. She comes from a warrior culture but knows she’s not great at fighting. Instead, she embraces her other strengths—like strategy and leadership—and uses them to rise above the challenges she faces. Her refusal to let others define her worth is something I deeply admire, and her unique perspective makes her one of my favorite characters.

### Conclusion

There you have it—my top 10 favorite kickass literary female characters! As I mentioned earlier, this list was incredibly hard to narrow down because there are so many incredible women out there in literature. Each of these characters has inspired me in their own way, whether through their strength, wit, kindness, or sheer determination. If you’ve got any other favorite female characters that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about them! There’s just no shortage of badassery in literature, and I’m always up for discovering new heroines to admire.

Thank you so much for watching, and I hope you enjoyed this video! Stay tuned for more content in the future, where I might dive deeper into other incredible female characters from books. Until next time, keep reading—and remember, there’s no wrong way to be a badass woman in literature!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's rean and today I'm going to be talking about some pretty great stuff today I'm going to make a video talking about my top 10 favorite kickass literary female characters now I'm going to preface this video to say this was an incredibly difficult list to narrow down because luckily for us there are so many Fantastic Kick-Ass women in a variety of different ways that Grace are pages that we get to read ya adults luckily the female's role has begun to EV evolved since the early days and we have a full flush and plethora of all different types of women that are all different types of shapes and sizes and today I want to celebrate that and I want to talk about some of my favorite that have stuck out to me for a variety of different reasons again this list was really hard to narrow down this is not a list trying to say if it's not on this list there not kickass not at all not even a little bit in fact I kind of want to open a dialogue to see kind of everyone else's characters that have left an impression on them cuz I would love to know but let's just go ahead and get started the first female I'm going to talk about is Lena from Between Shades of Gray now Lena has by no means superpowers she's not an assassin but she faces one of the most incredibly devastating and hard stories I've ever read before and to just see her perseverance and her hope and her strength and her ability to carry on was inspiring and honestly makes her incredibly badass because she is just an inspiration to anyone one who reads this book because they can see her as a character who's strong and someone to kind of look to and just to just be amazed by them as a person so that's why Lena has made my list of Kick-Ass women next we have Selena sidan I can't make a list about female badasses without including her but I also want to preface this and say the Throne of Glass series is full of a lot of different extremely badass women for totally different ways in fact I almost didn't include Selena with Manon just because she's currently my favorite character in this series but I love that Sarah J moss can make a lot of different diverse badass inspirational female characters that are strong in different ways and that so that way when you're reading a book you kind of can I don't know relate to a whole bunch of different characters but Selena sodan is kind of the OG I had to go with her she is a woman that I appreciate because she is girly right but she's also a fighter and she doesn't feel like this dichotomy needs to be separated she can enjoy both equally and that makes her just as much of a woman as anyone else which I appreciate that I like her I like her I find her to be sassy and fun and overall kind of a mess but that's also why she's very uh I can relate to her anyway next up we have another Sarah J moss book and I'm going with phra from uh the th like Court of Thrones and Roses series specifically a court of M and fury phra is just a very different character than Selena she's badass she's honestly more like levelheaded than Selena which I think is something I can appreciate but I also like her as a character because she grows from one I would say who's very dependent and wants to be protected into a strong individual who craves her independence and appreciates individuals that can coexist and be with each other and be friends but also aren't like dependent on each other in a way that's unhealthy which was something I really liked in this story also she just isn't afraid to ask for what she wants and go out and get it herself which I think is a really great character trait so pharra next we have Kelsey from the queen of the teerling series I love this series and I love Kelsey as a character she is not your stereotypical ya heroine she says she in the beginning of the book she's like I'm not beautiful I'm not I don't have the perfect figure but I'm smart and that's just something I really appreciate to see especially in Ya A lot of times people are the total package which is completely fine people are beautiful obviously in their own ways in every way but it's nice to have a character that's a little more relatable to the fact that she's like I am not interested in those things and that is fine I'm interested in being strong I'm interested in ruling and I'm interesting I'm interested in helping my kingdom and that is definitely her storyline in this series she gains power but she's definitely in the position of she's never ruled before so we're following her as she's figuring out how she what kind of ruler she wants to be and how she's going to figure these things out and it's fascinating and I really appreciate her she's definitely flawed which is also important to me because obviously no one's perfect and she's got a lot of SASS and again not afraid to speak her mind next we have Vin from the final Empire or the misbourne trilogy Vin is just one of those characters that's quiet she's definitely not one of those outspoken jokey characters she's quiet she's reserved she understands her power and she honestly doesn't want to be in the spotlight but just because she doesn't want to be in the spotlight doesn't make her not powerful and kick ass because she is she's just is in an entirely different way she's reliable she's a good friend and she has a great heart and that's why I really like Vin in this series and I kind of like that we had a female protagonist who wasn't brass because again not every W woman has to be brass to be powerful it's just another representation of how women are all unique and different so I really liked her plus like literally she's so unbelievably Kick-Ass like reading the action sequences in this story was amazing because she's awesome next up is a character from a recent series I love and honestly again this is another Series where there's just so many great women in this um but I'm going to go with Caris from the black prism series Caris is definitely a side character she's not a main character but I always love her chapters and her scenes she is a through and through badass and she's just so I mean beyond the fact that she's powerful and she's strong and she's great at what she does which is protecting people but she's also again will always always say what's on her mind right and but she's also incredibly professional she's incredibly professional but like if something's bothering her she will let you know and she's not going to you know dip around and like oh like not going to say anything which some characters do in this book but Caris is always straight up with you and you know and she if you want to fight her go ahead and try like she's just a really really great character and I love her relationship with the other characters in this book I think it's really interesting to see how people kind of deal with each other and she's just really great next I have both girls in truth Wist by says Susan dinard and I think this story especially shows um kind of two women who are incredibly badass but also are different from each other one is more outgoing one is more brass one kind of takes charge and another one is more quiet more reserved but offers very great advice that kind of keeps them together it's two women that are best of friends and that they're kind of opposites in some ways which is great for each other cuz they bring out the best in each other and they kind of help um qualities in personality that the other really doesn't have a lot of so one pushes one to be more outgoing and to pursue what they want when the other one p pushes the other one to think a little more before they make decisions and it's just a really great truth wish is just a great story because it just has such a fantastic female friendship that I love to see because in and in itself female friendship is badass and I like to see it in writing next I obviously had to pick a Cassandra Clair book took took me a while to figure out which one I wanted because there's so many great females in the series obviously dudes too uh but ultimately I picked the one just from the series that's finished and just my favorite completed series of hers and I'm going with Tessa from the clock Infernal Devices series again Tessa is a great character in this series because she's also not a huge fighter she uses instead she relies more on her brain and she just prefers strategy and and she's quiet and she's so unbelievably thoughtful and she has such a big heart and she cares about the people that she's around and it's just really really wonderful to read from her perspective because she's such a nice and loving person that's it's just inspiring and I really like her she loves book she's very easy to relate to at least if you're a bookish person like myself I really love Tessa and I like her quiet nature and I just appreciate her as a lady next we have a classic I couldn't make this list without including her mining Ranger I mean liter that's impossible Hermione Granger has literally been my fictional role model since as long as I can remember since I was a we child I remember reading Harry Potter and Hermione and I was like I want to be just like her I remember reading and she's like she's smart she works hard she always has the answers that all these other characters who just do things recklessly don't have she's prepared she studies anyway I've I love her mind and she's just a character that's been with me for so long and has been such an inspiration for me as as a girl especially growing up that obviously she's on this list Hermione is just the best and the last character I'm going to talk about again fits this theme of more quiet more interested in strategy not badass in the obvious fashion of fighting which obviously is still very badass but I'm going with kerol from the Winner's curse Trilogy keral is again one of those characters that is great with strategy she knows she's not great at fighting and it's especially a big deal in the she comes from Like a Warrior culture and she sucks at fighting and she's like I have other strengths you know what I mean like this doesn't make me worth less because I'm not great at fighting I have other talents and skills and I'm going to pursue instead and it's just really nice to have her perspective in the story she's strong willed she's not willing to give up things that she feels is right but she goes and pursues them in different ways she has different tactics because she has different strengths and the people that she's surrounded with which is again just like a really great thing um she's just a great character and I appreciate her all righty guys those are some of the some of my favorite all-time female characters again there's so many more that I didn't even name and I have like I honestly probably will make another one of these videos just because there's so many women that I encounter in literature that just inspire me and they just wow me with their badassery and these are just a few of the women that have recently been really inspiring me cuz obviously some of them are from books that I've read recently so obviously they're kind of fresh to mind but anyway please do let me know down below some of your favorite females in literature I would love to know know again there's just so many like I didn't talk about Jane from Jane air about catniss I'm probably going to have to make another video probably which means I will in the future but anyway I hope you guys enjoyed I will see you soon with another video soon goodbyehey guys it's rean and today I'm going to be talking about some pretty great stuff today I'm going to make a video talking about my top 10 favorite kickass literary female characters now I'm going to preface this video to say this was an incredibly difficult list to narrow down because luckily for us there are so many Fantastic Kick-Ass women in a variety of different ways that Grace are pages that we get to read ya adults luckily the female's role has begun to EV evolved since the early days and we have a full flush and plethora of all different types of women that are all different types of shapes and sizes and today I want to celebrate that and I want to talk about some of my favorite that have stuck out to me for a variety of different reasons again this list was really hard to narrow down this is not a list trying to say if it's not on this list there not kickass not at all not even a little bit in fact I kind of want to open a dialogue to see kind of everyone else's characters that have left an impression on them cuz I would love to know but let's just go ahead and get started the first female I'm going to talk about is Lena from Between Shades of Gray now Lena has by no means superpowers she's not an assassin but she faces one of the most incredibly devastating and hard stories I've ever read before and to just see her perseverance and her hope and her strength and her ability to carry on was inspiring and honestly makes her incredibly badass because she is just an inspiration to anyone one who reads this book because they can see her as a character who's strong and someone to kind of look to and just to just be amazed by them as a person so that's why Lena has made my list of Kick-Ass women next we have Selena sidan I can't make a list about female badasses without including her but I also want to preface this and say the Throne of Glass series is full of a lot of different extremely badass women for totally different ways in fact I almost didn't include Selena with Manon just because she's currently my favorite character in this series but I love that Sarah J moss can make a lot of different diverse badass inspirational female characters that are strong in different ways and that so that way when you're reading a book you kind of can I don't know relate to a whole bunch of different characters but Selena sodan is kind of the OG I had to go with her she is a woman that I appreciate because she is girly right but she's also a fighter and she doesn't feel like this dichotomy needs to be separated she can enjoy both equally and that makes her just as much of a woman as anyone else which I appreciate that I like her I like her I find her to be sassy and fun and overall kind of a mess but that's also why she's very uh I can relate to her anyway next up we have another Sarah J moss book and I'm going with phra from uh the th like Court of Thrones and Roses series specifically a court of M and fury phra is just a very different character than Selena she's badass she's honestly more like levelheaded than Selena which I think is something I can appreciate but I also like her as a character because she grows from one I would say who's very dependent and wants to be protected into a strong individual who craves her independence and appreciates individuals that can coexist and be with each other and be friends but also aren't like dependent on each other in a way that's unhealthy which was something I really liked in this story also she just isn't afraid to ask for what she wants and go out and get it herself which I think is a really great character trait so pharra next we have Kelsey from the queen of the teerling series I love this series and I love Kelsey as a character she is not your stereotypical ya heroine she says she in the beginning of the book she's like I'm not beautiful I'm not I don't have the perfect figure but I'm smart and that's just something I really appreciate to see especially in Ya A lot of times people are the total package which is completely fine people are beautiful obviously in their own ways in every way but it's nice to have a character that's a little more relatable to the fact that she's like I am not interested in those things and that is fine I'm interested in being strong I'm interested in ruling and I'm interesting I'm interested in helping my kingdom and that is definitely her storyline in this series she gains power but she's definitely in the position of she's never ruled before so we're following her as she's figuring out how she what kind of ruler she wants to be and how she's going to figure these things out and it's fascinating and I really appreciate her she's definitely flawed which is also important to me because obviously no one's perfect and she's got a lot of SASS and again not afraid to speak her mind next we have Vin from the final Empire or the misbourne trilogy Vin is just one of those characters that's quiet she's definitely not one of those outspoken jokey characters she's quiet she's reserved she understands her power and she honestly doesn't want to be in the spotlight but just because she doesn't want to be in the spotlight doesn't make her not powerful and kick ass because she is she's just is in an entirely different way she's reliable she's a good friend and she has a great heart and that's why I really like Vin in this series and I kind of like that we had a female protagonist who wasn't brass because again not every W woman has to be brass to be powerful it's just another representation of how women are all unique and different so I really liked her plus like literally she's so unbelievably Kick-Ass like reading the action sequences in this story was amazing because she's awesome next up is a character from a recent series I love and honestly again this is another Series where there's just so many great women in this um but I'm going to go with Caris from the black prism series Caris is definitely a side character she's not a main character but I always love her chapters and her scenes she is a through and through badass and she's just so I mean beyond the fact that she's powerful and she's strong and she's great at what she does which is protecting people but she's also again will always always say what's on her mind right and but she's also incredibly professional she's incredibly professional but like if something's bothering her she will let you know and she's not going to you know dip around and like oh like not going to say anything which some characters do in this book but Caris is always straight up with you and you know and she if you want to fight her go ahead and try like she's just a really really great character and I love her relationship with the other characters in this book I think it's really interesting to see how people kind of deal with each other and she's just really great next I have both girls in truth Wist by says Susan dinard and I think this story especially shows um kind of two women who are incredibly badass but also are different from each other one is more outgoing one is more brass one kind of takes charge and another one is more quiet more reserved but offers very great advice that kind of keeps them together it's two women that are best of friends and that they're kind of opposites in some ways which is great for each other cuz they bring out the best in each other and they kind of help um qualities in personality that the other really doesn't have a lot of so one pushes one to be more outgoing and to pursue what they want when the other one p pushes the other one to think a little more before they make decisions and it's just a really great truth wish is just a great story because it just has such a fantastic female friendship that I love to see because in and in itself female friendship is badass and I like to see it in writing next I obviously had to pick a Cassandra Clair book took took me a while to figure out which one I wanted because there's so many great females in the series obviously dudes too uh but ultimately I picked the one just from the series that's finished and just my favorite completed series of hers and I'm going with Tessa from the clock Infernal Devices series again Tessa is a great character in this series because she's also not a huge fighter she uses instead she relies more on her brain and she just prefers strategy and and she's quiet and she's so unbelievably thoughtful and she has such a big heart and she cares about the people that she's around and it's just really really wonderful to read from her perspective because she's such a nice and loving person that's it's just inspiring and I really like her she loves book she's very easy to relate to at least if you're a bookish person like myself I really love Tessa and I like her quiet nature and I just appreciate her as a lady next we have a classic I couldn't make this list without including her mining Ranger I mean liter that's impossible Hermione Granger has literally been my fictional role model since as long as I can remember since I was a we child I remember reading Harry Potter and Hermione and I was like I want to be just like her I remember reading and she's like she's smart she works hard she always has the answers that all these other characters who just do things recklessly don't have she's prepared she studies anyway I've I love her mind and she's just a character that's been with me for so long and has been such an inspiration for me as as a girl especially growing up that obviously she's on this list Hermione is just the best and the last character I'm going to talk about again fits this theme of more quiet more interested in strategy not badass in the obvious fashion of fighting which obviously is still very badass but I'm going with kerol from the Winner's curse Trilogy keral is again one of those characters that is great with strategy she knows she's not great at fighting and it's especially a big deal in the she comes from Like a Warrior culture and she sucks at fighting and she's like I have other strengths you know what I mean like this doesn't make me worth less because I'm not great at fighting I have other talents and skills and I'm going to pursue instead and it's just really nice to have her perspective in the story she's strong willed she's not willing to give up things that she feels is right but she goes and pursues them in different ways she has different tactics because she has different strengths and the people that she's surrounded with which is again just like a really great thing um she's just a great character and I appreciate her all righty guys those are some of the some of my favorite all-time female characters again there's so many more that I didn't even name and I have like I honestly probably will make another one of these videos just because there's so many women that I encounter in literature that just inspire me and they just wow me with their badassery and these are just a few of the women that have recently been really inspiring me cuz obviously some of them are from books that I've read recently so obviously they're kind of fresh to mind but anyway please do let me know down below some of your favorite females in literature I would love to know know again there's just so many like I didn't talk about Jane from Jane air about catniss I'm probably going to have to make another video probably which means I will in the future but anyway I hope you guys enjoyed I will see you soon with another video soon goodbye\n"